Well, that was a fun evening. I start on my way home, only to realize my car is making that BBBBPPPPRRRRRAAPPPP noise and doing that lurching thing that means, oh joy, a front tire has gone flat. No big deal, I pulled into a street next to one of the auto dealerships I deal with at work and one of the salesmen there helped me change my tire. (Okay, all I did was stand around while he changed my tire.) Then I drove home on the pathetic little donut. I'm just glad I don't have to drive on I-4. This means I'll be looking forward to buying at least two tires this Friday -- it would be stupid to put a brand new tire next to an aged and probably about-to-go old tire. (Hey, it looked like they still had tread to me. So I didn't do the dime test. And in any case, it's useless -- they are doing so much construction in this area that there are screws and nails and other sharp things everywhere. You're doomed either way.)
Then I get home, and of course the cable is working. I guess the scales are balanced for now.
Posted by Andrea Harris at May 13, 2003 10:36 PMLook at it this way -- you get to sleep in Thursday.
Posted by: Scott Chaffin at May 13, 2003 at 10:47 PMWell no -- I still have to go to work. I can't stay home; the boss is out of the country and I'm in charge of the office. Fortunately I don't have to drive very far or take the highway, so I can crawl over there on my little donut tire. Friday is payday and at least I'm getting a nice larger-than-usual paycheck. Which will be gone by the end of the weekend. Fun!
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 13, 2003 at 10:57 PMI want to take this opportunity to thank all the gentlemen who have changed flat tires for me over the years. I know how to do it, and I could do it if my life depended on it, but I have never had to do it because of all of the nice men in the world.
Posted by: Polly at May 13, 2003 at 11:34 PMI work in tires, and here's some free advice: If your old tire is within 4/32 of an inch of your new tire, don't get two new ones, you'll just be wasting your money. Make sure the tire place rotates your old tire on that side to the front, and installs your new one on the rear. The last thing you want to do is lose the rear end of the car in a wet curve, which is what will happen if you have more traction up front and your rear end hydroplanes first.
Posted by: Eichra Oren at May 14, 2003 at 03:16 PMEichra tells you right, but, if you'll take the opinion of a non-tire-selling gearhead, what you'll want to do is get them to rotate both of your front tires (old and new) to the rear, so that you still have a matched pair in the front; doing otherwise could de-center your steering or do unpleasant things to your ride.
Posted by: Robert Jones at May 14, 2003 at 06:29 PM